High cop job application cost stings aspirants

​Hyderabad: In what could be termed as good news for the jobless youth in the State, the government on Thursday issued notification for filling up of over 18,000 vacancies in the police department. 

However, the youth are expressing dismay over the application fee which has been increased two-fold. The application for a post of sub-inspector costs Rs 1,000. 

Over 10 lakh candidates are likely to apply for these posts. Going by the expected numbers, the government is very likely to make a revenue of at least Rs 60 crore through the sale of these applications.

The applications are invited for 21 categories and it is likely that persons will apply for more than single post with an aspiration to crack at least one. 

The candidates under local category of Telangana belonging to OCs, BCs and other candidates applying for the posts of SI (Civil/Armed Reserve/Special Armed Reserve), or State Forest Officer, or Deputy, or Jailor, or Assistant Matron have to pay a fee of Rs 1,000 towards registration and processing of the application, and SCs/STs have to pay Rs 500 towards the same. 

If a general candidate, who applies for all the above categories, has to shell out Rs 8,000. If the same candidate is interested in applying for constable-level posts, it could further burden him/her.

In 2016, the fee was exactly half the previous one. For the constable posts, it was Rs 400 for general candidates and Rs 200 for SC/ST candidates. For sub-inspector posts the fee was Rs 500 for general candidates and 250 for SC/ST candidates. There were about 6 lakh applications for about 9,000 constable posts and more than 2 lakh applications for about 539 sub-inspector posts.

“We were happy that the notification is out. However, the joy is short lived as the age limit doesn’t allow many of my friends to appear for the recruitment drive. The age limit should be increased by at least two years and the fee should be slashed. I cannot afford to apply for several jobs given my financial condition,” said P Shiva, a job aspirant. 

He added that the government should think about the plight of unemployed youth. “The government should undertake recruitment procedure at regular intervals. With this mega recruitment drive, it is likely that there would be no recruitments in the department for next five years,” he opined.

The repeated phone calls to the Chairman, Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board (TSLPRB) went unattended.